About Me

Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Annotated Me: The Feast of Saint Janis

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There is a band playing in Gorgas Park, a block away from our backyard as I write this, and the lead singer has clearly studied her Janis Joplin. Which puts me in mind of my first published story, "The Feast of Saint Janis." So I thought I would begin a series I have long considered running here of facts not personal enough to be considered autobiographical nor significant enough to be in any sense revelations. Let's call them annotations.

My first published story was "The Feast of Saint Janis, about a Janis Joplin impersonator in a future, diminished America. At that time, it was very difficult to publish a sf story about rock and roll, so it made me popular among fans who loved --and lived -- the stuff. One day I was sitting, talking with a batch of the folks and Avedon Carol started talking about Joplin, whom she had known.

But Avedon didn't call the singer Janis. She called her JJ. "JJ did this... JJ said that..."

Listening, I thought: If only I knew this when I was writing the story.